Lock the Clock

Once again, Congress considers abolishing the semiannual clock change between Standard and Daylight Saving Time. A Senate bill to make DST permanent is on the table, although many people advocate getting rid of it altogether instead.

Sunshine Protection Act

The history of the time change:

Daylight Saving Time

I would rejoice to have Daylight Saving Time all year around. Does anybody really WANT darkness to fall at 5 p.m. in the winter? And that's here in Maryland; think how much earlier the light vanishes in more northerly states. Opponents of permanent DST derisively dismiss the proposal as catering to after-work golfers. Rather, a later sunset in December and January offers a more significant benefit. Homebound drivers and students leaving after-school activities would enjoy the safety of daylight for an hour longer.

In my opinion, the allegedly scary prospect of kids waiting for morning school buses "in the dark" is much exaggerated. Isn't road traffic heavier in the late afternoon than in the early morning? In general, far more people are inconvenienced -- and endangered -- by dusk darkness than by dawn dimness. Also, isn't it less dangerous to move from dark into light (later sunrise) than from light through twilight into darkness (too-early sunset)?

If the semiannual "spring forward, fall back" custom is really so hazardous to health in general and sleep-deprived drivers in particular as some research claims, requiring that we "lock the clock" for the public good, it should be locked in the direction of longer daylight at the end of the day, when more people are active. At the very least, think of the benefit to people burdened with Seasonal Affective Disorder. I'd be tempted to crawl into a cave and hibernate if I had to face the middle of March (after enduring late-afternoon gloom since early November) with no immediate prospect of brighter evenings.

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.